This year’s Super Bowl will likely go down in history as the ‘crypto bowl’, given the amount of dollars that crypto companies have invested in the event. It’s a world’s first, and we don’t know how it’ll play out. A wide array of crypto companies are on board, including top flight players like Coinbase, FTX Bitbuy and Crypto.com.

The Super Bowl is arguably one of the most important sports events of the year - every year - partly because of the huge marketing machine that keeps its wheel in motion, and also because Americans are famously (some would say ‘notoriously’) extremely talented at turning everything and anything into a spectacle. No one does hype and no one harnesses the ‘wow’ factors like Americans do.

This is part of what makes the Super Bowl so relevant and intriguing even to people who normally couldn’t give a toss about the sport that’s being played on any other day. Kinda like the Fifa World Cup, the Winter Olympics and the Six Nations Rugby Union Championship. These events sort of supersede the impact of the sport by also providing value to people who are into something else.

Advertisers have always provided the fuel to keep this 30-billion-dollar engine running. Automakers have historically spent a small fortune trying to outbid one another to secure a coveted 30-second spot during the halftime show and this year, it is estimated that companies will spend as much as $6.5 mln for a 30-second ad.

And it isn’t the usual, boring, B-roll-focused ad either: they usually throw everything but the kitchen sink at it, hiring celebs to star in their commercials and screenwriters to write the script. I remember Kevin Hart’s hilarious Hyundai ad, Will Ferrell wanting to ‘declare war’ on Norway to beat the most EV-friendly country at the electric car game [with General Motors] and even some cringey ones like the ad starring Bruce Springsteen and Jeep.

I believe we’re seeing a sliding doors scenario here because the car industry is in trouble. Automakers aren’t spending as much on marketing these days because they have other priorities and because profitability has become a Chimera. In the meantime, crypto giants are now investing huge sums of cash in marketing. I don't know what to expect but as somebody who’s equally passionate about cars and crypto, I’m gonna stay up until 0:30 AM CET time to watch the Cincinnati Bengals take on the Los Angeles Rams in the Super Bowl LVI. Not because I care who wins, but because I want to see how car makers and crypto brands play their cards in the halftime show.

I've crossposted this article on my blog about crypto Bitcoinea, my blog about cars Flabbergasted, and LeoFinance